There are many impressive speakers at this year's Mackinac Policy Conference, which kicks off Wednesday. How do we know they're impressive? We've watched their Ted Talks. If you're headed to Mackinac, or even if the policy conference isn't on your radar, these TED Talks are worth watching.

Mellody Hobson, president of Ariel Investments and chairwoman of DreamWorks Animation, in a 2014 TED talk, describes a moment when she was mistaken for kitchen help at an event she helped to organize. It's an experience that helps frame our discussion on race. Racial discrimination, she says, "threatens to rob another generation of all the opportunities that all of us want for all of our children no matter what their color or where they come from." Hobson addresses the conference on Thursday morning.

Dean Kamen may be best known for inventing the Segway, but through his inventions he tries to solve deep, difficult problems. Take the work of Kamen and his team to develop a life-like prosthetic arm for military veterans who have lost one or both arms in combat. Kamen addresses the policy conference Wednesday afternoon.

Author and historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, in a 2008 TED Talk, details what we can learn from Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Lyndon B. Johnson on the question of balancing work, love and play. Kearns Goodwin talks to the conference Thursday morning.

This one is not for those with weak stomachs. Mike Rowe, now host of CNN's "Somebody's Gotta Do It," was the host of "Dirty Jobs," where, as he describes in this 2008 TED Talk, he once had to castrate lambs. The lesson he learned: There's a right way and a wrong way to do something.